–adjective, superl. of good with better as compar.

1.	of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: the best work; the best students.

2.	most advantageous, suitable, or desirable: the best way.

3.	largest; most: the best part of a day.

–adverb, superl. of well with better as compar.

4.	most excellently or suitably; with most advantage or success: an opera role that best suits her voice.

5.	in or to the highest degree; most fully (usually used in combination): best-suited; best-known; best-loved.

–noun

6.	something or someone that is best: They always demand and get the best. The best of us can make mistakes.

7.	a person's finest clothing: It's important that you wear your best.

8.	a person's most agreeable or desirable emotional state (often prec. by at).

9.	a person's highest degree of competence, inspiration, etc. (often prec. by at).

10.	the highest quality to be found in a given activity or category of things (often prec. by at): cabinetmaking at its best.

11.	the best effort that a person, group, or thing can make: Their best fell far short of excellence.

12.	a person's best wishes or kindest regards: Please give my best to your father.

–verb (used with object)

13.	to get the better of; defeat; beat: He easily bested his opponent in hand-to-hand combat. She bested me in the argument.

—Idioms

14.	all for the best, for the good as the final result; to an ultimate advantage: At the time it was hard to realize how it could be all for the best. Also, for the best.

15.	as best one can, in the best way possible under the circumstances: We tried to smooth over the disagreement as best we could.

16.	at best, under the most favorable circumstances: You may expect to be treated civilly, at best.

17.	get or have the best of, a. to gain the advantage over. b. to defeat; subdue: His arthritis gets the best of him from time to time.

18.	had best, would be wisest or most reasonable to; ought to: You had best phone your mother to tell her where you are going.

19.	make the best of, to cope with in the best way possible: to make the best of a bad situation.

20.	with the best, on a par with the most capable: He can play bridge with the best.

–noun

1.	the amount or quantity of heaviness or mass; amount a thing weighs.

2.	Physics. the force that gravitation exerts upon a body, equal to the mass of the body times the local acceleration of gravity: commonly taken, in a region of constant gravitational acceleration, as a measure of mass.

3.	a system of units for expressing heaviness or mass: avoirdupois weight.

4.	a unit of heaviness or mass: The pound is a common weight in English-speaking countries.

5.	a body of determinate mass, as of metal, for using on a balance or scale in weighing objects, substances, etc.

6.	a specific quantity of a substance that is determined by weighing or that weighs a fixed amount: a half-ounce d46 weight of gold dust.

7.	any heavy load, mass, or object: Put down that weight and rest your arms.

8.	an object used or useful solely because of its heaviness: the weights of a clock.

9.	a mental or moral burden, as of care, sorrow, or responsibility: Knowing you are safe takes a weight off my mind.

10.	importance, moment, consequence, or effective influence: an opinion of great weight.

11.	Statistics. a measure of the relative importance of an item in a statistical population.

12.	(of clothing, textiles, etc.) a. relative heaviness or thickness as related to warmth or to seasonal use (often used in combination): a winter-weight jacket. b. relative heaviness or thickness as related to use: a bolt of coat-weight woolen cloth.

13.	Printing. (of type) the degree of blackness or boldness.

14.	(esp. in boxing) a division or class to which a contestant belongs according to how much he weighs: two brothers who fight professionally in the same weight.

15.	the total amount the jockey, saddle, and leads must weigh on a racehorse during a race, according to the conditions of the race: Jacinto has a weight of 122 pounds in the seventh race.

16.	the stress or accent value given a sound, syllable, or word.

–verb (used with object)

17.	to add weight to; load with additional weight: to weight sacks before dumping them overboard.

18.	to load (fabrics, threads, etc.) with mineral or other matter to increase the weight or bulk.

19.	to burden with or as if with weight (often fol. by down): Financial worries have weighted that family down for years.

20.	Statistics. to give a statistical weight to.

21.	to bias or slant toward a particular goal or direction; manipulate: The teacher weighted the test so students who had read both books would make the highest marks.

22.	to assign (a racehorse) a specific weight to carry in a race: The handicapper weighted Dapper Dan with 128 pounds.

—Idioms

23.	by weight, according to measurement of heaviness or mass: Rates are determined by weight.

24.	carry weight, to have impo 6fa rtance or significance; influence: Her opinion is certain to carry weight.

25.	pull one's weight, to contribute one's rightful share of work to a project or job: We will finish in time if we each pull our weight. Also, pull one's own weight.

26.	throw one's weight around or about, to use one's power and influence, esp. beyond the bounds of propriety, to secure some personal gain.

–noun

1.	detriment, disadvantage, or deprivation from failure to keep, have, or get: to bear the loss of a robbery.

2.	something that is lost: The painting was the greatest loss from the robbery.

3.	an amount or number lost: The loss of life increased each day.

4.	the state of being deprived of or of being without something that one has had: the loss of old friends.

5.	death, or the fact of being dead: to mourn the loss of a grandparent.

6.	the accidental or inadvertent losing of something dropped, misplaced, stolen, etc.: to discover the loss of a document.

7.	a losing by defeat; failure to win: the loss of a bet.

8.	failure to make good use of something, as time; waste.

9.	failure to preserve or maintain: loss of engine speed at high altitudes.

10.	destruction or ruin: the loss of a ship by fire.

11.	a thing or a number of related things that are lost or destroyed to some extent: Most buildings in the burned district were a total loss.

12.	Military. a. the losing of soldiers by death, capture, etc. b. Often, losses. the number of soldiers so lost.

13.	Insurance. occurrence of an event, as death or damage of property, for which the insurer makes indemnity under the terms of a policy.

14.	Electricity. a measure of the power lost in a system, as by conversion to heat, expressed as a relation between power input and power output, as the ratio of or difference between the two quantities.

—Idiom

15.	at a loss, a. at less than cost; at a financial loss. b. in a state of bewilderment or uncertainty; puzzled; perplexed: We are completely at a loss for an answer to the problem.

–noun

1.	a small globular or rounded mass of medicinal substance, usually covered with a hard coating, that is to be swallowed whole.

2.	something unpleasant that has to be accepted or endured: Ingratitude is a bitter pill.

3.	Slang. a tiresomely disagreeable person.

4.	Sports Slang. a ball, esp. a baseball or golf ball.

5.	the pill. birth-control pill.

6.	pills, British Slang. billiards.

–verb (used with object)

7.	to dose with pills.

8.	to form or make into pills.

9.	Slang. to blackball.

–verb (used without object)

10.	to form into small, pill-like balls, as the fuzz on a wool sweater.